Systems and methods for personalized timing for advertisements

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided herein for determining personalized timing for generating for display advertisements to users. Rather than an expert determining time segments of a media asset most suitable for presenting advertisements to users, the most suitable time segments in a media asset for presenting advertisements to users may be customized based on a user&#39;s profile information and/or the user&#39;s level of engagement in a media asset. The media guidance application may parse a media asset into multiple time segments and determine one or more time segments associated with metadata that matches content characteristics preferred by the user. One or more advertisements may be presented to the user in these time segments determined by the media guidance application instead of the time segments determined by the expert.

BACKGROUND

A user may be presented with advertisements during media content beingviewed. The point in time within the media content at which theadvertisement is presented to the user may be based on content that thecontent provider thinks is most interesting to one or more users.However, the portion of the content that is considered to be the mostinteresting for presentation of the advertisement is not necessarily theportion of the content that the user considers to be interesting.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are provided herein for determining timing forgenerating for display an advertisement in a media asset based on a userprofile is described herein. The media asset may be parsed into aplurality of time segments. A plurality of metadata items associatedwith content in each of the plurality of time segments of the mediaasset may be retrieved. In some embodiments, the metadata items may beretrieved from a server. The user profile corresponding to the user mayalso be retrieved. The retrieved plurality of metadata items and theuser profile may be compared. Based on the comparison, a time segment ofthe plurality of time segments of the media asset that matches at leasta portion of the user profile may be determined, and based on thedetermination an advertisement may be generated for display during thedetermined time segment of the media asset. Alternatively, and/or inaddition, the advertisement may be generated for display before orafter, but still in close temporal proximity, to the determined timesegment during which the user is engaged.

In some embodiments, the comparison of the retrieved plurality ofmetadata items and the user profile may be performed by a server. Thiscomparison may include searching each of the retrieved plurality ofmetadata items for a content characteristic preferred by the user.Preferred content characteristics may be included in the user profile.Examples of content characteristics include genres of content, such asaction, romance, drama, comedy, actors, actresses, specific pieces ofcontent preferred by the user, and any other suitable criteria.

In some embodiments, in addition to retrieving the user profile andcomparing the plurality of metadata items of the media asset to the userprofile, social media data corresponding to the user may also beaccessed. The accessed social media data may be compared to theretrieved plurality of metadata items. Based on this comparison, asecond time segment of the plurality of time segments of the media assetmay be determined. Based on this determination, an advertisement may begenerated for display during the second time segment of the time mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the comparison of the user profile and theretrieved plurality of the metadata items of the media asset may beperformed for a media asset that the user is currently viewing. Inaddition, a first advertisement may be generated for display in lieu ofa second advertisement, where the second advertisement is included forpresentation in a second time segment of the media asset by a contentprovider of the media asset. For example, if the second advertisementwas included in the time segment from 5.00 to 6.00 minutes of the mediaasset by the content provider and the media guidance applicationdetermines that based on the user's profile it would be more appropriateto display an advertisement from the time segment at 49.00 to 55.00minutes of the media asset, then the second advertisement included bythe content provider in the media asset may not be displayed and onlythe advertisement determined to be appropriate based on the user'sprofile may be displayed.

In some embodiments, the time point in the media asset determined to besuitable for presentation of an advertisement to this user may bedifferent from the time point in a media asset determined to be suitablefor display of an advertisement to a second user. For example, if thesecond user has content characteristics in her user profile that aredifferent from the content characteristics in the user profile of thefirst user, then the time point in the media asset determined to besuitable for presentation of an advertisement to this user may bedifferent from the time point in a media asset determined to be suitablefor display of an advertisement to a second user. When the first and thesecond user are watching the same media asset on a shared screen, themedia guidance application may present a first advertisement at a firsttime point in the media asset determined to be suitable for presentationof the first advertisement to the first user as well as present a secondadvertisement at a second time point in the media asset determined to besuitable for presentation of the second advertisement to the seconduser.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may request anadvertisement from an advertisement source. The advertisement source maybe a content source that provides the media asset being consumed by theuser, a content source that does not provide the media asset beingconsumed by the user, an online advertising data base, or any othersuitable provider of advertising content.

In some embodiments, a first time segment of the media asset may bedetermined as being suitable for presenting an advertisement to the userbased on the user's profile. A user's level of engagement in thedetermined time segment of the media asset may be determined by themedia guidance application. If it is determined that the user's level ofengagement in the determined time segment exceeds a threshold engagementlevel, then the user may be determined to be engaged in that timesegment. If the user's determined level of engagement exceeds athreshold engagement level for the media asset, the advertisement may begenerated for display during the determined time segment. For example,if a time segment 5.00 to 8.50 minutes of the media asset is determinedto be appropriate for generating for display the advertisement to theuser based on the user's profile and it is further determined that theuser is currently engaged with the media asset during the time segment5.00 to 8.50 minutes of the media asset, then the advertisement may begenerated for display to the user during the determined time segment. Ifit is determined that the user is not engaged in the media asset in thedetermined time segment of the media asset, then the advertisement maynot be generated for display to the user.

In some embodiments of the invention, if it determined that the user isnot engaged in the time segment of the media asset determined to beappropriate for displaying an advertisement of the user based on theuser's profile, then the advertisement may still be presented to theuser. For example, the advertisement presented to the user in suchsituations may be may have a lower cost basis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of user personalized timingfor advertisements, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for generating fordisplay an advertisement at a time point in a media content that ispersonalized to the user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative data structure for storing user profileinformation, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhich candidate advertisement to generate for display based on theuser's level of engagement with the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of user personalized timingfor advertisements, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure.

Timing diagram 100 of FIG. 1 corresponds to the time duration of themedia asset. Timing diagram 100 begins at 0.00 minutes. Time segment 110of the media asset, from 15.30 through 18.50 minutes, may be determinedto be an interesting portion of the media asset. For example, timesegment 110 of the media asset, say the Twilight movie, may correspondto a romantic scene between Edward and Bella. An expert, potentially atthe content provider providing the media asset, may determine that it'sappropriate to display an advertisement during time segment 120 whichmay reside within time segment 110. This determination may be based onprojected viewership levels or return on the advertising dollar.

To identify interesting portions of the media asset, the media asset maybe parsed into several portions by the media guidance application. Theportions may correspond to time segments of the media asset. The timesegments may be uniform or not uniform. The time segments of the mediaasset may be processed to determine the content characteristics of eachtime segment of the media asset. For example, the media asset may beparsed into equal time segments of length 2.00 minutes. Alternatively,the media asset may be parsed into time segments of varying lengths. Forexample, while some time segments may be 2.00 minutes long, other timesegments may be 10.00 minutes long. These time segment length values aremerely exemplary and any other suitable time values may also beselected.

The time segments of the media asset may be processed to determinecontent characteristics of the media content within those time segments.Content characteristics such as the genre, e.g., action, drama, comedy,romance, science fiction, or any other suitable genre, may bedetermined. Other content characteristics may include the actorsappearing in that time segment of the media asset, various objectsdepicted in that time segment of the media asset, various geographicallocations appearing in that time segment, or any suitable combinationthereof. Further content characteristics may include the mood of thatparticular time segment, e.g., whether content in that time segment ofthe media asset is happy, sad, or exciting.

For any given content characteristic, the time segments of the parsedmedia asset may be ranked based on the presence, absence, or amount ofthat content characteristic within a time segment. For example, if thecontent characteristic is “Tom Cruise,” time segments in a parsed mediaasset may be ranked from highest to lowest based on the degree ofpresence of “Tom Cruise” within that media asset. In particular, theranking of a time segment for the presence of “Tom Cruise” may be higherthe longer Tom Cruise appears in that particular time segment, or themore frequently Tom Cruise is mentioned in that particular time segment.

The content characteristics determined by the media guidance applicationfor the time segments of the parsed media asset may be indicated inmetadata associated with the respective time segments of the mediaasset. For example, each time segment of the media asset processed bythe media guidance application may be associated with metadata. Themetadata may include entries for each content characteristic. Forexample, a time segment corresponding to an action sequence from a“Mission Impossible” movie may have metadata associated with “TomCruise” and action.

In timing diagram 100 of FIG. 1 , the advertisement generated fordisplay in time segment 120 may be displayed during, before, or aftertime segment 110. For example, the advertisement generated for displayin time segment 120 may be displayed immediately before the start oftime segment 110. That is, the advertisement may end at time 15.30minutes. Alternatively, the advertisement may be generated for displaywithin time segment 110. That is, time segment 120 may be completelyencapsulated within time segment 110. In other words, time segment 120may be some duration between 15.30 minutes and 18.50 minutes of themedia asset. Alternatively, time segment 120 may occur immediately afterthe end of time segment 110. That is, the advertisement displayed withintime segment 120 may begin at time 18.50 minutes of the media asset.

An expert may determine multiple advertisement insertion points withinthe media asset. That is, time segment 110 may not be the onlyinteresting portion of the media asset within which it is appropriate togenerate for display advertisements to a user according to the expert.There may be one or more such interesting time segments andadvertisements may or may not be displayed within each of thoseinteresting time segments of the media asset. An expert may be thecontent provider or a third party advertisement service.

Different users may find different things interesting. For example, thetime segment 110 of the media asset determined to be interesting by theexpert, and suitable for generating for display an advertisement, maynot be considered to be interesting by other user. For example, if Bobis an adult male, he may generally be interested in action sequences.However, continuing the example from above, time segment 110 was markedinteresting by the expert based on it's romantic content. Accordingly,Bob may not find time segment 110 interesting. On the contrary, based onBob's preference for action sequences, Bob may find the wolf fightingscene beginning at 48.01 minutes of the media asset Twilight mostinteresting. As shown in timing diagram 100 at the bottom of FIG. 1 ,the time segment 150 depicts the wolf fighting scene. Accordingly, forBob, it may be most appropriate to display advertisement within timesegment 160 which is situated before, during or after time segment 150.

Bob's preference for action sequences may be indicated in Bob's userprofile. Accordingly, time segments within a media asset mostappropriate for displaying an advertisement to various users may bedetermined based on the user profile of those various users. It followsthat the time segment during which an advertisement is displayed forvarious users may be different for each user. The user's profile may bedetermined by and maintained by the media guidance application. The userprofile, as further discussed in connection with FIG. 7 below, may trackvarious preferences or attributes of the user. Exemplary attributesinclude the user's age group, gender, likes, dislikes, interests,favorite genres, favorite actors, favorite locations, culture, andlanguage. In addition, any other suitable user attribute may also beincluded in the user's profile.

The user's profile may be generated based on the user's inputs, that is,manual entries by the user. Alternatively the user profile may begenerated automatically by the media guidance application by monitoringthe user's interactions with the media guidance application and alsoincluding information culled from other sources. Other sources ofinformation indicating the user's preferences may include social mediainformation. For example, if a user indicates on Facebook that he iscurrently in a relationship, this information may be included in theuser's profile by the media guidance application.

In some embodiments, time segment 110 predetermined by the expert forgenerating for display an advertisement to the user based on theinterestingness of the time segment, may match the user's profile. Forexample, Alice may be a female teenager, and her user profile mayindicate that she has a preference for a romantic content. In thissituation, the romantic scene between Edward and Bella depicted in timesegment 110 of the media asset and picked by the expert for generatingfor display an advertisement, may match Alice's user profile.

However, if Alice is not feeling quite herself, for example if she'sfeeling low or sad because she just went through a breakup, then she maynot find romantic scenes interesting in that moment. It may be that inthat moment, she may prefer to watch science fiction content.

In this situation, it may be determined that the science fiction scenesof the movie Twilight from 5.00 minutes through 8.00 minutes,corresponding to time segment 130, shown in the middle timing diagram100 of FIG. 1 , may be the most interesting time segments for Alice tobe presented with an advertisement. Accordingly, an advertisement may bepresented to Alice during time segment 140. Time segment 140 may befully encapsulated within time segment 130 of timing diagram 100 of themedia asset or time segment 140 may fall immediately before orimmediately after time segment 130 of the media asset.

It is clear from the two examples discussed in detail above that theappropriate time segment within a media asset during which advertisementmay be generated for display to user, may vary from user to user.

Moreover, even for a given user, the appropriate time segment of a mediaasset during which the advertisement may be generated for display tothat user may change dynamically based on the user's mood, the user'slevel of engagement, the user's dopamine levels, the presence or absenceof certain other people watching the media asset with that user, or anyother suitable variety of factors. For example, even though Alice'sprofile may indicate that she prefers romantic content, if the mediaguidance application determines that Alice is really engaged in a carchase sequence in the movie “Mission Impossible,” then the mediaguidance application may determine that it may be a good time point togenerate for display an advertisement during the car chase sequence. Inanother example, even though Alice's profile may indicate that sheprefers romantic content, if the media guidance application determinesthat Alice is watching media content with her husband, Bob, who prefersaction sequences, then the media guidance application may avoidgenerating for display an advertisement during romantic sequences in themedia content and may instead generate for display an advertisementduring action-packed sequences of the media content. Alternatively, themedia guidance application may generate for display an advertisementduring both romantic and action sequences in the media content.

In some embodiments, accordingly, it may be important to measure Alice'slevel of engagement in the media asset. Alice's engagement may bemeasured in real time in variety of ways. For example, Alice's activityin front of the screen at which she's watching the media asset may betracked through one or more sensors. Her mood may be determined throughthe monitoring of facial expressions, dopamine levels, or social mediaactivity. Her level of engagement in the content may also be monitoredthrough her facial expressions and her posture.

In some embodiments, an advertisement may be displayed to the userduring a time segment of the media asset when the user's level ofengagement is low. For example, if it is determined through real timemonitoring of the user's activity, mood, posture, or any other suitabletechnique, that the user is currently not fully engaged in the mediaasset, e.g., because she is in reality checking her email, then anadvertisement may nevertheless be displayed to the user.

The type of advertisement displayed to the user when the user's level ofengagement in the media asset is low may be different than the type ofadvertisement displayed to the user when the user's level of engagementin the media asset is high. For example, if the user's current level ofengagement in the media asset is low, advertisements that have a lowercost basis may be displayed to the user. A lower cost basis may implythat an advertiser has to pay a lower amount for placing thatadvertisement in the media asset.

In some embodiments, the time segment in the media asset determined tobe suitable for generating for display an advertisement to a user by anexpert may be replaced by an advertisement generated for display by themedia guidance application in another time segment of the media assetdetermined based on the user's profile or level of engagement in themedia asset. For example, an advertisement in time segment 140 of FIG. 1may be added to the media asset in addition to the advertisementscheduled for presentation to the user during time segment 120 of FIG. 1. Alternatively, the advertisement to be generated for display in timesegment 140 of FIG. 1 may be presented to the user in lieu of theadvertisement to be generated for display to the user in time segment120 of FIG. 1 . That is, the advertisement in time segment 140 of FIG. 1may replace the advertisement in time segment 120 of FIG. 1 . In otherinstances, the user may be presented with advertisements in both timesegments 120 and 140 of FIG. 1 .

In some embodiments, an advertisement may be requested from anotheradvertisement source for generating for display within the media asset.Advertisement sources are described in greater detail in connection withFIG. 5 below. For example, if a media asset is currently being viewed bythe user on channel 1, with channel 1 being tuned to by the tuner, andanother advertisement needs to be included for presentation in the mediaasset, based on the user's profile, in addition to the advertisementalready included for presentation within the media asset by the contentprovider of the media asset, then another advertisement may be requestedfrom another channel which could be tuned to by other tuner. In anotherexample, if the media asset is being streamed from an over-the-topcontent provider, such as Hulu or YouTube, and another advertisementneeds to be included for presentation within the media asset, then theother advertisement may be requested from another advertisement source.Exemplary advertisement sources include other channels than can be tunedto, over-the-top content providers, and advertisement data bases. Forexample, if the user is watching a video on YouTube, then anotheradvertisement may be requested from Hulu. Similarly, on-demandadvertisement data bases may also provide supplemental advertisementsfor inclusion within the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may parse a mediaasset currently being watched by a user for determination of appropriatetime segments to present an advertisement to the user. Alternatively,the media guidance application may parse the media asset scheduled to bewatched by the user at a later date or currently recorded by the userfor determining time segments appropriate for presenting anadvertisement to a user for a media asset.

In some embodiments, when multiple users are watching the same mediaasset on a shared screen, then the user profiles or the engagementlevels of all the users watching the media asset on the shared screenmay be taken into consideration for determining appropriate timesegments for generating for display an advertisement in a media asset.For example, if both Alice and Bob are watching the movie Twilight, andBob's user profile indicates that he likes action sequences, and Alice'suser profile indicates that she likes romantic sequences, then anadvertisement may be presented to Alice and Bob in time segments of themedia asset corresponding to both romantic sequences and actionsequences. Alternatively, the media guidance application may determinetime segments in the movie Twilight that are both romantic and actionpacked. Similarly, time segments within the media asset may bedetermined for presentation of an advertisement to the user based on thelevel of engagement exhibited by Alice and Bob in the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may present an advertisementonly if both Alice and Bob are determined to be engaged in the mediaasset. Alternatively, an advertisement may be presented if at least oneof Alice and Bob are determined to be engaged in the media asset.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, advertisement 224, andoptions region 226. Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 222 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 202. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 224 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 202. Advertisement 224 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 202. Advertisement224 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 224 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

The time point within a media asset at which advertisement 224 may begenerated for display to the user may be determined by the mediaguidance application based on the user's profile information or level ofengagement with the media asset.

While advertisement 224 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 224 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid202. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5 . Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3 . Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5 .User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5 ). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5 , may be used to supplementstorage 408 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 400. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 400.Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 410.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 400 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some user television equipment 502,include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

System 500 may also include an advertisement source 524 coupled tocommunications network 514 via a communications path 526. Path 526 mayinclude any of the communication paths described above in connectionwith paths 508, 510, and 512. Advertisement source 524 may includeadvertisement logic to determine which advertisements to transmit tospecific users and under which circumstances. For example, a cableoperator may have the right to insert advertisements during specifictime slots on specific channels. Thus, advertisement source 524 maytransmit advertisements to users during those time slots. As anotherexample, advertisement source 524 may target advertisements based on thedemographics of users known to view a particular show (e.g., teenagersviewing a reality show). As yet another example, advertisement source524 may provide different advertisements depending on the location ofthe user equipment viewing a media asset (e.g., east coast or westcoast).

In some embodiments, advertisement source 524 may be configured tomaintain user information including advertisement-suitability scoresassociated with user in order to provide targeted advertising.Additionally or alternatively, a server associated with advertisementsource 524 may be configured to store raw information that may be usedto derive advertisement-suitability scores. In some embodiments,advertisement source 524 may transmit a request to another device forthe raw information and calculate the advertisement-suitability scores.Advertisement source 524 may update advertisement-suitability scores forspecific users (e.g., first subset, second subset, or third subset ofusers) and transmit an advertisement of the target product toappropriate users.

Advertisement source 524 may additionally be capable of providingadvertisements to the media guidance application upon request from themedia guidance application as described in detail in connection withFIG. 1 above.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5 .

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 516 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4 .

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for generating fordisplay an advertisement at a time point in a media content that ispersonalized to the user, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 600 may be executed by control circuitry 404 (e.g.,in a manner instructed to control circuitry 404 by the media guidanceapplication). Control circuitry 404 may be part of user equipment (e.g.,user equipment 100 and/or 110, each of which may have any or all of thefunctionality of user television equipment 502, user computer equipment504, and/or wireless communications device 506), or of a remote serverseparated from the user equipment by way of communications network 514.

Process 600 begins at 610, where control circuitry 404 may parse, usinga media guidance application, a media asset into a plurality of timesegments. The manner in which control circuitry 404 parses a media assetis described above with respect to FIG. 1 , and such description isequally applicable to 610. For example, the media asset may bepartitioned into multiple time segments of uniform or non-uniformlength.

At 620, control circuitry 404 may retrieve, using a media guidanceapplication, a plurality of metadata items associated with content inthe plurality of time segments of the media asset. The manner in whichcontrol circuitry 404 retrieves the plurality of metadata items isdescribed above with respect to FIG. 1 , and such description is equallyapplicable to 620. For example, the media guidance application or athird party service may associate each of the time segmentscorresponding to the media asset parsed in 610 with metadata. Themetadata associated with a given time segment may include contentcharacteristics associated with media content within that time segment.Metadata associated with each of the time segments may be stored instorage 408 or in memory at a remote server. Control circuitry 404 mayaccordingly retrieve the metadata from storage 408 or the remote server.

At 630, control circuitry 404 may retrieve, using a media guidanceapplication, a user profile. The manner in which control circuitry 404retrieves the user profile is described above with respect to FIG. 1 ,and below with respect to FIG. 7 , and such description is equallyapplicable to 630.

At 640, control circuitry 404 may compare, using a media guidanceapplication, the plurality of retrieved metadata items and the userprofile. The manner in which control circuitry 404 performs thecomparison is described above with respect to FIG. 1 , and suchdescription is equally applicable to 640.

At 650, control circuitry 404 may determine, using a media guidanceapplication, a time segment of the media asset that matches at least aportion of the user profile. The manner in which control circuitry 404determines the time segment is described above with respect to FIG. 1 ,and such description is equally applicable to 650. For example, if themedia guidance application determines that the metadata (e.g., romanticcontent) associated with time segment 130 in FIG. 1 matches one or moreportions of the user's profile information (e.g., Alice's user profileinformation indicates that she is a female teenager who likes romanceand sci-fi), then time segment 130 may be determined to be a suitabletime segment for presenting an advertisement to the user.

At 660, control circuitry 404 may generate for display, using a mediaguidance application, an advertisement during the time segment,determined at 650, of the media asset. The manner in which controlcircuitry 404 generates for display the advertisement is described abovewith respect to FIG. 1 , and such description is equally applicable to660.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a data structure for storing userprofile information, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.The manner in which control circuitry 404 utilizes user profileinformation is described above with respect to FIG. 1 , and suchdescription is equally applicable to the data structure described inFIG. 7 .

The data structure may store information about the identity of the userand information corresponding to the user's profile. The data structuremay include user profile information section 710 containing user profiledata 720. In some implementations, the data structure may includesection 730 that contains user preference information. Section 730 mayinclude preference information for media content 740, 750, and 760.

User profile information section 710 is used to identify the user. Uponidentifying the user watching media content, the media guidanceapplication may use user profile information section 710 to identify theuser profile information corresponding to the user watching the mediacontent. Section 710 may include descriptive information 720 about auser such as user ID number, name, gender, and age. The user ID numbermay be a unique number assigned to identify a user. Examples of such IDnumbers may include national identity card numbers, social securitynumbers, passport numbers, or a hash code generated from the full nameand birth date of the user.

Section 730 may include content information which describes access tomedia content and preference information. The information in section 730may be used by the media guidance application to retrieve userpreferences and attributes needed to make a determination of a suitabletime point in a media asset for presenting an advertisement to the user.For example, information contained in section 730 of the user profileinformation may be compared against metadata associated with timesegments of the media asset parsed by the media guidance application in640 of process 600.

The access information may describe the user's past or present access toone or more media content. It may include media content the user issubscribed to. The term subscription may refer to any grouping of mediacontent that is provided by a media content service provider for aperiod of time, and that depend on the terms of a service agreementbetween a user and the copyright owner or distributor. For example, auser may be subscribed to access the entire television series ofBattlestar Galactica, indicating that the user prefers drama, sci-fi,any of the actors involved with Battlestar Galactica, or specificallythis particular series. Such user preferences may also be indicated insection 730. For example, the user may be subscribed to a sportsbroadcast package that grants access to a number of pay-per-view showsor a number of sports channels, indicating that the user prefers sportsor particular types of movies.

Subscription information may include an ID number of the user, anaccount number with a service provider, a duration of the subscription,and a hash code. For example, the user may be subscribed to the NBCSports Network, indicating that the user prefers sports. The ID numbermay be used to verify the identity of the user and the account numbermay be used to verify the services subscribed by the user. The durationmay indicate the length of the subscription from a start date ofservice, expiration date of the service, time remaining available in thesubscription, any other suitable duration information or any combinationthereof. The longer a user has been subscribed, the more strongly mightthat user prefer the type of content offered by that subscriptionservice. The hash code may be a unique number assigned to the user thatis compared with a value stored on a central server. The hash code isonly valid for the duration of the subscription. After the subscriptionhas expired, the user will need to renew the subscription and obtain anew hash code in order to continue maintaining access to the subscribedservices. Possession of the information listed above will enable adevice the user is using to access the media content with which thesubscription is associated.

Listing 740 is an example of access to a media content described bymetadata, which may include information that describes a media contentsuch as the content type, title, genre, composer, author, performer,file size, and time length of the media asset. The information inlisting 740 may be used by the media guidance application to retrieveuser preferences and attributes needed to make a determination of asuitable time point in a media asset for presenting an advertisement tothe user. Listing 740 provides example access information described bymetadata. The listing describes a media content having a content type741 of movie, title 742 of “War of the Worlds,” and genre 743 of sci-fi,indicating that the user prefers sci-fi. Hash codes may be used tosecurely protect metadata stored in plain text from tampering byunauthorized users.

In some implementations, control circuitry 404 may compute the hash code744 as the result of hashing a concatenation of the metadata 741-743,using a hashing algorithm only usable by control circuitry 404.Modification of the plain text metadata in listing 740 withoutmodification of the hash code would corrupt the information in thelisting 740.

Listing 750 is an example of access information corresponding to accessto a media content described without metadata. The information inlisting 750 may be used by the media guidance application to retrieveuser preferences and attributes needed to make a determining of asuitable time point in a media asset for presenting an advertisement tothe user. Listing 750 includes an ID number 751, hash code 752, datestamp 753, and time stamp 754. ID number 751 may be a unique ID numberfor the media asset. Date stamp 753 and time stamp 754 may indicate adate and time at which the media content was accessed. Hash code 752 maybe a hashed value of an ID number, date information, time information,user profile information, any other suitable content authorizationinformation or subscription information or any combination thereof. Thehash code may prevent against tampering of the access right.

Listing 760 is an example of an access to a channel. The information inlisting 760 may be used by the media guidance application to retrieveuser preferences and attributes needed to make a determining of asuitable time point in a media asset for presenting an advertisement tothe user. The listing may include subscription term 761, which indicatesthe duration of the subscription. Other variants of 761 may includeone-time, annual or seasonal. Hash code 762 may be a hashed value of anID number, date information, time information, user profile information,any other suitable content authorization information or subscriptioninformation or any combination thereof. In this case, only the hashedvalue is stored to reduce the amount of information about the accessright that needs to be stored or transmitted. It should be understoodthat other variants and combinations of the information describedpreviously may also be used to describe media content accessed by,and/or preferred by the user.

In some implementations, data structure 700 may also include fields (notshown) for encapsulating user preference information or demographicinformation directly. For example, if the user has interacted with ane-mail, text message, reminder, calendar event, bookmark, screenshot,media content recommendation, and game request setting, or any otherindividual data item, data structure 700 may include a field to containthe relevant information.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhich candidate advertisement to generate for display based on theuser's level of engagement with the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Process 800 may be executed by controlcircuitry 404 (e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 404 bythe media guidance application). Control circuitry 404 may be part ofuser equipment (e.g., user equipment 100 and/or 110, each of which mayhave any or all of the functionality of user television equipment 502,user computer equipment 504, and/or wireless communications device 506),or of a remote server separated from the user equipment by way ofcommunications network 514.

Process 800 begins at 810, where control circuitry 404 may determine,using the media guidance application, a level of engagement of the userin a time segment of a media asset. The manner in which controlcircuitry 404 performs the determining of the level of engagement of theuser in a time segment of a media asset is described above with respectto FIG. 1 , and such description is equally applicable to 810.

At 820, control circuitry 404 may determine, using the media guidanceapplication, whether the level of engagement exceeds a thresholdengagement level in the media asset. For example, in order to make thisdetermination, the media guidance application may retrieve a thresholdvalue corresponding to the threshold engagement level for the mediaasset from storage 408. Exemplary threshold values may range from avalue corresponding to the user being fully engaged with the media assetto the user not being engaged at all with the media asset.

If the level of engagement in fact exceeds a threshold engagement levelin the media asset, process 800 continues to 830, where controlcircuitry 404 determines that the user is engaged in that time segmentof the media asst. At 840, control circuitry 404, using the mediaguidance application, generates for display a first advertisement inassociation with the time segment of the media asset. If the level ofengagement does not exceed a threshold engagement level in the mediaasset, process 800 continues to 850, where control circuitry 404determines that the user is not engaged in that time segment of themedia asst. At 860, control circuitry 404, using the media guidanceapplication, generates for display a second advertisement in associationwith the time segment of the media asset. The manner in which controlcircuitry 404 performs the elements of 820-860 is described above withrespect to FIG. 1 , and such description is equally applicable to820-860.

It should be noted that processes 600 and 800 or any step thereof couldbe performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 4-5 .For example, any of processes 600 and 800 may be executed by controlcircuitry 404 (FIG. 4 ) as instructed by control circuitry implementedon user equipment 502, 504, 506 (FIG. 5 ), and/or a user equipment forselecting a recommendation. In addition, one or more steps of processes600 and 800 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 6 and8 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 6 and 8 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 4-5 could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIGS. 6and 8 .

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, determining planned activities of a user may be performed,e.g., by processing circuitry 406 of FIG. 4 . The processing circuitry,for instance, may be a general purpose processor, a customizedintegrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmable gate array(FPGA) within user equipment 400, media content source 516, or mediaguidance data source 518. For example, a profile, as described herein,may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 408 of FIG. 4 , or mediaguidance data source 518 of FIG. 5 . Furthermore, processing circuitry,or a computer program, may update settings of the home securityapplication, such as volume settings or time restriction settings,stored within storage 408 of FIG. 4 or media guidance data source 518 ofFIG. 5 .

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

1-50. (canceled)
 51. A method comprising: determining a preferred castmember indicated as preferred by a user profile; scheduling anadvertisement to be displayed during a playing of a first segment of theplurality of time segments with highest prominence of the preferred castmember; capturing facial expressions of a user by a sensor during theplaying of the first segment of the plurality of time segments withhighest prominence of the preferred cast member; determining, based onthe facial expression, a level of engagement of the user during theplaying of the first segment of the plurality of time segments withhighest prominence of the preferred cast member; and based on the levelof engagement being below a threshold, re-scheduling display of thescheduled advertisement for playing during playing of a second timesegment with less prominence of the preferred cast member instead of inthe first segment of the plurality of time segments with highestprominence of the preferred cast member.
 52. The method of claim 51,further comprising ranking, based on the prominence of the preferredcast member in each of plurality of time segments of a media asset, eachof the plurality of time segments of the media asset.
 53. The method ofclaim 51, further comprising, in response to the re-scheduling displayof the advertisement for playing during playing of the second timesegment, generating for display the scheduled advertisement during theplaying of the second time segment with less prominence of the preferredcast member.
 54. The method of claim 51, further comprising determiningthe prominence of the preferred cast member in each of the plurality oftime segments by determining the amount of time the preferred characterappears in each of the time segments.
 55. The method of claim 51,further comprising determining the prominence of the preferred castmember in each of the plurality of time segments by determining theamount of times the preferred character is mentioned in each of the timesegments.
 56. The method of claim 51, further comprising, in response todetermining a preferred cast member indicated as preferred by a userprofile, requesting an advertisement from an advertisement source. 57.The method of claim 51, further comprising, in response to determiningthat the level of engagement of the user exceeds a threshold engagementlevel, generating for display the scheduled advertisement during theplaying of the first segment of the plurality of time segments withhighest prominence of the preferred cast member.
 58. The method of claim51, further comprising, in response to determining that the level ofengagement of the user does not exceed a threshold engagement level,generating for display a different advertisement instead of thescheduled advertisement during first segment of the plurality of timesegments with highest prominence of the preferred cast member
 59. Themethod of claim 51, wherein the user is a first user, the method furthercomprising: determining, a preferred cast member indicated by a seconduser profile; scheduling, an advertisement to be displayed during theplaying of a segment of the plurality of time segments with highestprominence of the preferred cast member indicated by the second userprofile; and generating for display the advertisement during the playingof a segment of the plurality of time segments with highest prominenceof the preferred cast member indicated by the second user profile. 60.The method of claim 59, wherein the first user and the second user areconcurrently watching the video asset on a same display device.
 61. Asystem comprising: control circuitry configured to: determine apreferred cast member indicated as preferred by a user profile; schedulean advertisement to be displayed during a playing of a first segment ofthe plurality of time segments with highest prominence of the preferredcast member; a sensor configured to capture facial expression of theuser; wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: capturefacial expressions of a user by the sensor during the playing of thefirst segment of the plurality of time segments with highest prominenceof the preferred cast member; determine, based on the facial expression,a level of engagement of the user during the playing of the firstsegment of the plurality of time segments with highest prominence of thepreferred cast member; and based on the level of engagement being belowa threshold, re-schedule display of the scheduled advertisement forplaying during playing of a second time segment with less prominence ofthe preferred cast member instead of in the first segment of theplurality of time segments with highest prominence of the preferred castmember.
 62. The system of claim 61, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to rank, based on the prominence of the preferredcast member in each of plurality of time segments of a media asset, eachof the plurality of time segments of the media asset.
 63. The system ofclaim 61, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, inresponse to the re-scheduling display of the advertisement for playingduring playing of the second time segment, generate for display thescheduled advertisement during the playing of the second time segmentwith less prominence of the preferred cast member.
 64. The system ofclaim 61, wherein the control circuitry is further configured todetermine the prominence of the preferred cast member in each of theplurality of time segments by determining the amount of time thepreferred character appears in each of the time segments.
 65. The systemof claim 61, wherein the control circuitry is further configured todetermine the prominence of the preferred cast member in each of theplurality of time segments by determining the amount of times thepreferred character is mentioned in each of the time segments.
 66. Thesystem of claim 61, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto, in response to determining a preferred cast member indicated aspreferred by a user profile, request an advertisement from anadvertisement source.
 67. The system of claim 61, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to, in response to determining that thelevel of engagement of the user exceeds a threshold engagement level,generate for display the scheduled advertisement during the playing ofthe first segment of the plurality of time segments with highestprominence of the preferred cast member.
 68. The system of claim 61,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, in response todetermining that the level of engagement of the user does not exceed athreshold engagement level, generate for display a differentadvertisement instead of the scheduled advertisement during firstsegment of the plurality of time segments with highest prominence of thepreferred cast member
 69. The system of claim 61, wherein the user is afirst user, the control circuitry further configured to: determine apreferred cast member indicated by a second user profile; schedule, anadvertisement to be displayed during the playing of a segment of theplurality of time segments with highest prominence of the preferred castmember indicated by the second user profile; and generate for displaythe advertisement during the playing of a segment of the plurality oftime segments with highest prominence of the preferred cast memberindicated by the second user profile.
 70. The system of claim 69,wherein the first user and the second user are concurrently watching thevideo asset on a same display device.